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Disaster Preparedness: A Memoir
"Smart, hilarious, unique-- just terrific." --Anne Lamott
A thoughtful, witty memoir from the author of How to Be a Person in the World and the popular advice column, Ask Polly.
When Heather Havrilesky was a kid during the '70s, harrowing disaster films dominated every movie screen with earthquakes that destroyed huge cities, airplanes that plummeted towards the ground and giant sharks that ripped teenagers to shreds. Between her parents' dramatic clashes and her older siblings' hazing, Heather's home life sometimes mirrored the chaos onscreen.
Disaster Preparedness charts how the most humiliating and painful moments in Havrilesky's past forced her to develop a wide range of defense mechanisms, some adaptive, some piteously ill-suited to modern life. From premature boxing lessons to the competitive grooming of cheerleading camp, from her parents' divorce to her father's sudden death, Havrilesky explores a path from innocence and optimism to self-protection and caution, bravely reexamining the injuries that shaped her, the lessons that sunk in along the way, and the insights that carried her through.
Disaster Preparedness is a road map to the personal disasters we all face from an irresistible voice that gets straight to the beauty and grace at the heart of every calamity.
A thoughtful, witty memoir from the author of How to Be a Person in the World and the popular advice column, Ask Polly.
When Heather Havrilesky was a kid during the '70s, harrowing disaster films dominated every movie screen with earthquakes that destroyed huge cities, airplanes that plummeted towards the ground and giant sharks that ripped teenagers to shreds. Between her parents' dramatic clashes and her older siblings' hazing, Heather's home life sometimes mirrored the chaos onscreen.
Disaster Preparedness charts how the most humiliating and painful moments in Havrilesky's past forced her to develop a wide range of defense mechanisms, some adaptive, some piteously ill-suited to modern life. From premature boxing lessons to the competitive grooming of cheerleading camp, from her parents' divorce to her father's sudden death, Havrilesky explores a path from innocence and optimism to self-protection and caution, bravely reexamining the injuries that shaped her, the lessons that sunk in along the way, and the insights that carried her through.
Disaster Preparedness is a road map to the personal disasters we all face from an irresistible voice that gets straight to the beauty and grace at the heart of every calamity.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2010
35 people are currently reading
1276 people want to read
About the author
Heather Havrilesky
13 books507 followersHeather Havrilesky writes the popular Ask Polly advice column on Substack and is the author of What If This Were Enough?, How to Be a Person in the World, and Disaster Preparedness. She has written for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, and NPR’s All Things Considered, among others, and also maintains the Ask Molly newsletter, written by Polly’s evil twin. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 132 reviews
April 12, 2018
Actual rating: 3.5
I enjoyed the author's narration of her and her family's life story. Although there are some parts that I doze off especially on the part where she tells her story about one of her exes. But some of her stories are quite comic like when she and her dad rode the plane and there was a turbulence. There are also some noteworthy subtle pieces of advice usually on every end of the chapters. If you are looking for a witty, quirky and light read novel this coming weekend; then this book definitely suits you.
I enjoyed the author's narration of her and her family's life story. Although there are some parts that I doze off especially on the part where she tells her story about one of her exes. But some of her stories are quite comic like when she and her dad rode the plane and there was a turbulence. There are also some noteworthy subtle pieces of advice usually on every end of the chapters. If you are looking for a witty, quirky and light read novel this coming weekend; then this book definitely suits you.
July 8, 2012
I read most of this mediocre memoir on a beach in NJ so perhaps it was the extreme environment that soured it for me. I had snagged it up on the historic last day of Borders’ existence for a buck because AJ Jacobs endorsed it and the Library of Congress had it categorized it as 1. Pessimism 2. Emergency Management. Both Jacobs and the Library of Congress lied; I want a refund! In short: girl grows up in Durham, NC during the 70s and 80s with divorced academic parents. Yawn. My memoir-writing workshops produced much more interesting stuff than this. David Sederis makes the quotidian or common autobio episode funny and memorable. She’s no Sederis, and she hasn’t lived the life of Churchill, just another on-line wordsmith who once worked at the mall, lost her religion and virginity, tried out for cheerleading, fought with her siblings, etc. As such, Havrlesky’s prose is track-laid pedestrian, taking us from one slice-of-life incident to the other uninteresting to anyone not in her family.
February 11, 2012
Salon.com is just so much duller ever since Heather H. left. Their new TV critic has yet to write a column that maintains my intereest. Hell, I can't even remember his name.
Unlike the vastly overhyped "Bossypants", which IMO barely qualified as a "memoir" at all (Fey told us nothing about her life that wasn't already public knowledge), this memoir does not shy away from exploring some of the difficult aspects of Havrilesky's past. This takes courage, but Havrilesky's candor makes this a much more interesting book than "Bossypants", which the Guardian reviewer correctly identified as more of an exercise in concealment:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radi...
It's also much funnier.
Unlike the vastly overhyped "Bossypants", which IMO barely qualified as a "memoir" at all (Fey told us nothing about her life that wasn't already public knowledge), this memoir does not shy away from exploring some of the difficult aspects of Havrilesky's past. This takes courage, but Havrilesky's candor makes this a much more interesting book than "Bossypants", which the Guardian reviewer correctly identified as more of an exercise in concealment:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radi...
It's also much funnier.
February 23, 2011
An uninteresting memoir about someone's uninteresting life. The "uninteresting life" part would have been fine if she had found some interesting or truly funny way to write about the average things that happened to her. But she didn't. So her parents got divorced. So she has flaws. BIG WHOOP. I kept reading this book hoping that it would have some kind of positive realization, but the maybe four times Havrilesky was positive it felt saccharine and fake. Overall a cliched, repetitive, unnecessary book.
January 16, 2011
This was a good memoir about growing up the 1970s. It was generally a series of essays. The book was not a compelling read in that I didn't constantly want to get back to, but it was solid. I thought overall, it was generally a 3-star book, but I loved the last essay so much, I bumped it up one notch. The last essay focused on how we would like to be the perfect mom with everything clean and neat and we'd like to be the person who hired people to help with every unpleasant task so we had tons of time to think and read and stare out the window, but that in the end, we were flawed people who would never be perfect and that the crazy messiness of life is really life and she loved hers and it reminded me that I love mine, crumbs on the floor/screaming toddler/no bread in the house and all.
July 7, 2011
I love Heather Havrilesky's Television Reviews on Salon, and so I was very excited when I found her book during my pillaging of the Milford Borders' final day of sales (I think I bought 20 books for $25 that day--thanks, bad economy).
Havrilesky writes about her parents' failed marriage and how its impacted her adulthood: subject matter that's right up my alley. She also does a nice job looking at the larger context of disaster during the years she grew up. In many ways, this is the memoir I've wanted to someday write.
But the problem is: Havrilesky's book is a little boring. It's oddly organized--I think perhaps she strung together posts from her blog, because it reads like a series of disconnected blog posts. She does wayyyyy too much telling and not enough showing. She brings great insights into her subject matter, but, she doesn't earn those insights. She's often funny, but, there's not enough humor happening in scene. Her book taught me a lot about what I should not be doing in my own work; that's always a good thing.
If you do read this book, think of it not as a book-length project but as a collection of essays, and that will help a lot.
Havrilesky writes about her parents' failed marriage and how its impacted her adulthood: subject matter that's right up my alley. She also does a nice job looking at the larger context of disaster during the years she grew up. In many ways, this is the memoir I've wanted to someday write.
But the problem is: Havrilesky's book is a little boring. It's oddly organized--I think perhaps she strung together posts from her blog, because it reads like a series of disconnected blog posts. She does wayyyyy too much telling and not enough showing. She brings great insights into her subject matter, but, she doesn't earn those insights. She's often funny, but, there's not enough humor happening in scene. Her book taught me a lot about what I should not be doing in my own work; that's always a good thing.
If you do read this book, think of it not as a book-length project but as a collection of essays, and that will help a lot.
Read
August 22, 2014I liked this! When I was in high school, I liked Heather Havrilesky's tv writing, and now I like her advice columns or whatever else pops up on the internet. In the same way, I liked this book.
What I did NOT like was the part where she confesses everything that's wrong with her to her future husband and he's like, "so you're a woman." Harhar. NO, WTF! I don't expect everyone to be a lesbian feminist (this might be a lie) but yeesh! Just sub "human" for "woman" and everything would be fine.
What I did NOT like was the part where she confesses everything that's wrong with her to her future husband and he's like, "so you're a woman." Harhar. NO, WTF! I don't expect everyone to be a lesbian feminist (this might be a lie) but yeesh! Just sub "human" for "woman" and everything would be fine.
January 21, 2014
The author shares my hometown, so it was fun recognizing the landmarks, roads, schools, etc. that she writes about. Also, the last few pages of this killed me.
"Please remember, we were not a disappointment. Not at all, not even close. We were gorgeous and strong, you and me. We were terrible and troubled and utterly divine."
"Please remember, we were not a disappointment. Not at all, not even close. We were gorgeous and strong, you and me. We were terrible and troubled and utterly divine."
April 1, 2020
Found this book randomly in a little library. It felt like the author tried excessively to make her mundane life seem interesting. Not my jam. Giving it 2 stars because it held my interest enough for me to finish it.
May 24, 2022
Sometimes even the writers you love are insufferable.
April 6, 2022
It's largely forgettable but there are some funny moments and sweet passages about fully accepting your messy, multi-dimensional self.
September 18, 2021
I enjoyed this well-written and entertaining memoir about growing up in the 70s. Although my family situation and location was different, I had many of the same fears and the desire to control EVERYTHING to keep myself safe in what seemed a scary and unpredictable world.
January 13, 2011
Heather Havrilesky's sister Laura was my classmate at Githens, Jordan, and Williams. Now my youngest child and Laura's oldest are in the same elementary school class at Morehead. So when I saw Heather, who is a couple of years younger than Laura and I, had written a book and was giving a reading at The Regulator, naturally I had to go! It was a packed house: classmates of mine and Laura's as well as Heather's, parents of friends who now live far away, and lots and lots of folks who follow Heather's writing as a TV critic for Salon.com. I think I heard her once on All Things Considered, but I have to say I have not been up to the minute on her writing career, and I enjoyed catching up.
Heather noted in her remarks that the book was originally subtitled "Essays," as it appears here on Goodreads. The actual book cover says instead "A Memoir." I think "essays" was a better choice. Each chapter stands alone just fine, and most encompass many years, starting with how Heather's approach to a certain aspect of life (sharing or withholding emotions, for example, or determining the value of truthfulness) was formed in childhood or youth and has evolved over time. This means the chronological flow resets at the beginning of each new chapter. That's not unexpected with essays but can be a bit jolting in a memoir.
The book starts with the disclaimer that the stories are true but "certain names and identifying characteristics of some people portrayed here have been changed to protect their privacy." Fair enough for the people, but as someone who know the places she writes about, I wondered why Sherwood Githens Jr. High and Charles E. Jordan High were given their true names, indeed in more complete form than most folks use, but Imacculata, where the Havrileskys went to elementary school, became Sacred Heart. Other places, although not named specifically at all, were a cinch to peg. I loved the description, although fairly brief, of the old South Square Mall. It was such a prominent place in the landscape of Durham growing up in the 70s and 80s, and now it's gone. Ah, nostalgia!
The Havrilesky parents are worth the read. Mr. H was an economics prof at Duke, a somewhat sadistic dad who enjoyed scaring the living daylights out of his children as a means to toughen them up, a philanderer who, when his wife finally divorced him, kept several girlfriends around the globe at all times and advised his daughter, "'One girlfriend, or three . . . But never two. If you have two, they'll find out about each other, and they'll be pissed.' This was the sort of pragmatic advice my father bestowed: advice that made no sense (three girlfrends wouldn't find out about one another somehow?)" And yet Heather's deep love for him in spite of his questionable sanity shines through.
Mrs. H is well-meaning but has a hard time saying just the right thing: "My mom was about as bad at reassuring a little kid that the world was a safe place as anyone could be. She would start out on the right track, but then give up almost immediately, exhausted by the effort of forming optimistic lies she didn't believe. 'Some people think that there's a heaven,' she'd start out saying when some pet or distant relative died and I wanted to know what would happen to them, 'but I've always thought that was wishful thinking, honestly.' Or: 'The chance of lightning striking the house is something like a million to one . . . but, then again, it did strike that tree in the side yard last year, didn't it? Ane we are on a hill, covered by tall trees.'"
Both parents are a hoot to read about, as are Laura and Eric and Heather and her friends and boyfriends, teachers and bosses. It was fun to peek in the windows of a friend's house and see what life was like in there!
Heather noted in her remarks that the book was originally subtitled "Essays," as it appears here on Goodreads. The actual book cover says instead "A Memoir." I think "essays" was a better choice. Each chapter stands alone just fine, and most encompass many years, starting with how Heather's approach to a certain aspect of life (sharing or withholding emotions, for example, or determining the value of truthfulness) was formed in childhood or youth and has evolved over time. This means the chronological flow resets at the beginning of each new chapter. That's not unexpected with essays but can be a bit jolting in a memoir.
The book starts with the disclaimer that the stories are true but "certain names and identifying characteristics of some people portrayed here have been changed to protect their privacy." Fair enough for the people, but as someone who know the places she writes about, I wondered why Sherwood Githens Jr. High and Charles E. Jordan High were given their true names, indeed in more complete form than most folks use, but Imacculata, where the Havrileskys went to elementary school, became Sacred Heart. Other places, although not named specifically at all, were a cinch to peg. I loved the description, although fairly brief, of the old South Square Mall. It was such a prominent place in the landscape of Durham growing up in the 70s and 80s, and now it's gone. Ah, nostalgia!
The Havrilesky parents are worth the read. Mr. H was an economics prof at Duke, a somewhat sadistic dad who enjoyed scaring the living daylights out of his children as a means to toughen them up, a philanderer who, when his wife finally divorced him, kept several girlfriends around the globe at all times and advised his daughter, "'One girlfriend, or three . . . But never two. If you have two, they'll find out about each other, and they'll be pissed.' This was the sort of pragmatic advice my father bestowed: advice that made no sense (three girlfrends wouldn't find out about one another somehow?)" And yet Heather's deep love for him in spite of his questionable sanity shines through.
Mrs. H is well-meaning but has a hard time saying just the right thing: "My mom was about as bad at reassuring a little kid that the world was a safe place as anyone could be. She would start out on the right track, but then give up almost immediately, exhausted by the effort of forming optimistic lies she didn't believe. 'Some people think that there's a heaven,' she'd start out saying when some pet or distant relative died and I wanted to know what would happen to them, 'but I've always thought that was wishful thinking, honestly.' Or: 'The chance of lightning striking the house is something like a million to one . . . but, then again, it did strike that tree in the side yard last year, didn't it? Ane we are on a hill, covered by tall trees.'"
Both parents are a hoot to read about, as are Laura and Eric and Heather and her friends and boyfriends, teachers and bosses. It was fun to peek in the windows of a friend's house and see what life was like in there!
June 22, 2015
to be honest-- I'm not so much rating this book as memoir (it's more like a linked collection of essays anyway, probably labeled memoir by the marketing department) but for H Havrilesky's impact on my life via the Ask Polly column. So much humanity, humor, empathy and heart, with a good dose of sourness thrown in, which is why I like her so much. OK people are saying that she didn't have enough bad things happen to her (?) That is not the point of an essay-- rather, it is the observations. And the part where she remembers her mother getting out in the middle of a camping trip just sticks with me. As well as Heather's thoughts on her father's reaching for grace while dating three women at the same time (& going jogging), her mother's Greek chorus of friends, and her high school ice cream job. This book is very honest-- sometimes social being a social winner means being a social winner (in a chapter on the cheerleaders) and yet I found her comments on the generosity of her cheerleader friends so humane and thoughtful. A lot of us have trouble getting over our outcast natures, and being honest and reaching out and actually connecting to people, and taking our own emotions and troubles seriously. That's why I love the "If a tree falls" chapter. <3 this book and also Ask Polly.
March 4, 2013
I've really enjoyed Havrilesky's advice column "Ask Polly" where she gently and empathically and sympathetically tells people in the nicest possible way exactly why they are full of crap and how all of their problems are their own fault. I love her voice, and figured I would like to read her memoir.
This is close to a "my childhood is worse than your childhood" memoir, except that it's more humorous than that. Havrilesky never takes herself too seriously, or thinks that her problems were as bad as her young self imagined them to be. This memoir doesn't feel like it's shooting for pure humor, however, as there are parts that made some profound emotional observations. (Specifically the chapter in which she reflects on her parents' divorce when she was young.)
One chapter, in which she describes how and why honest is not the best policy and how her therapist made her interpersonal relationships worse, made me laugh out loud. Any book funny enough to make me laugh out loud more than once is worth the cost.
This is close to a "my childhood is worse than your childhood" memoir, except that it's more humorous than that. Havrilesky never takes herself too seriously, or thinks that her problems were as bad as her young self imagined them to be. This memoir doesn't feel like it's shooting for pure humor, however, as there are parts that made some profound emotional observations. (Specifically the chapter in which she reflects on her parents' divorce when she was young.)
One chapter, in which she describes how and why honest is not the best policy and how her therapist made her interpersonal relationships worse, made me laugh out loud. Any book funny enough to make me laugh out loud more than once is worth the cost.
April 10, 2011
I am a big Heather Havrilesky fan from way back. I like the rabbit blog and I loved her as the salon TV critic. But it turns out that some people just shouldn't write a memoir. They should write about other things.
Full disclosure: I read this immediately after I read the excellent Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Havrilesky's book wasn't going to be able to compare to that no matter what. But really, Disaster Preparedness is a disaster - the whining diatribes of a spoiled girl who resents her family and friends for every (normal, conventional) thing that has happened to her. It is a bratty, bitter, angry book. And shlocky, high schoolish writing to boot.
Heather Havrilesky, what happened to you? I miss the hilarious, articulate TV critic. Where did you go?
Full disclosure: I read this immediately after I read the excellent Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Havrilesky's book wasn't going to be able to compare to that no matter what. But really, Disaster Preparedness is a disaster - the whining diatribes of a spoiled girl who resents her family and friends for every (normal, conventional) thing that has happened to her. It is a bratty, bitter, angry book. And shlocky, high schoolish writing to boot.
Heather Havrilesky, what happened to you? I miss the hilarious, articulate TV critic. Where did you go?
January 21, 2014
Heather is possibly one of my favorite people ever. I want her to be my 24 hour life coach. This is mostly due to her column Ask Polly and is unrelated to this book. However, as it turns out, she is also from my home town, which made for an interesting read. I prefer her in advice giving, conclusions about life mode and the instances of that were few, but on point.
January 19, 2015
Couldn't finish this disjointed memoir...itemizing every single time an uncaring, insensitive and probably deliberately cruel adult traumatized the author. Billed as "hilarious" -- I found it to be just plain whiney and irritating.
September 21, 2016
Havrilesky grew up in Durham, NC and sprinkles this memoir with some fun details from the Bull City. The narrative is disjointed even for a memoir, but I persevered and was rewarded with some insightful, moving writing about growing up with difficult parents whom she still adored.
September 8, 2015
Felt like hanging out with an old friend
Book Bingo: Memoir
Book Bingo: Memoir
May 15, 2022
This memoir isn't exactly what I thought it was going to be (save for the beginning where I related to her obsession/fascination with any and all kinds of disasters, as this is my normal mode of thinking). My most common thought while reading this memoir was: I’m not quite sure what the point of this is. This book had the tendency to feel like a self-gratifying memoir, a compulsive need to write about oneself, to finally tell the (supposedly interesting) story one is sure they deserve.
And the last eight pages were absolute drivel. I, personally, have no desire to be told what a book—whether fiction or nonfiction—is about. I don’t need the lesson chewed up for me then regurgitated into my mouth as if I were a baby chick. And that last line? Please remember, we were not a disappointment. Not at all, not even close. We were gorgeous and strong, you and me. We were terrible and troubled and utterly divine. I can just imagine the author sitting at her desk, typing that out onto a document, then leaning back in her chair with a self-satisfied grin on her face, thinking to herself that that was one of the best closing lines in history. In reality, it felt like a line taken straight out of some pretentious Thought Catalog article.
A memoir’s structure is one its most important components, if not the most important, and yet this memoir had nothing even remotely resembling structure. It was a disjointed assortment of pretty thoughts meant to convince us that something important, something interesting, has happened to this author when, in fact, nothing of the sort has.
And the last eight pages were absolute drivel. I, personally, have no desire to be told what a book—whether fiction or nonfiction—is about. I don’t need the lesson chewed up for me then regurgitated into my mouth as if I were a baby chick. And that last line? Please remember, we were not a disappointment. Not at all, not even close. We were gorgeous and strong, you and me. We were terrible and troubled and utterly divine. I can just imagine the author sitting at her desk, typing that out onto a document, then leaning back in her chair with a self-satisfied grin on her face, thinking to herself that that was one of the best closing lines in history. In reality, it felt like a line taken straight out of some pretentious Thought Catalog article.
A memoir’s structure is one its most important components, if not the most important, and yet this memoir had nothing even remotely resembling structure. It was a disjointed assortment of pretty thoughts meant to convince us that something important, something interesting, has happened to this author when, in fact, nothing of the sort has.
February 26, 2018
Heather Havrilesky is one of the funniest writers I've ever read while still remaining earnest and tender. I laughed out loud on the street, on the bus, at the coffee shop, everywhere I took this book. I smiled in recognition, covered my mouth in embarrassment, and almost cried from grief while reading. Structurally, I was impressed by how Havrilesky handles time throughout the narrative. At first, I was suspicious of how we move through time in a way that could feel disjointed, but the book is organized thematically more than anything else, so this ultimately worked for me as a reader. I'm grateful to have finally read this memoir after being a longtime Ask Polly reader. I can't wait until Havrilesky's next book.
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May 20, 2018I love Heather Havrilesky’s voice, but this book is meh.
Say we’re all friends. Take some Thursday night after work, at some comfortable, low-key bar where you can hear the conversation. Take any third or half of any chapter in this book, and, as we’re all shooting the shit and telling stories and laughing, have her tell us that third or half of a chapter. Her stories would own the night, and we’d all leave thinking Wow, what an awesome evening.
Reading it all, though, I got antsy and a little bored. I kept wondering: What is the POINT? Where is she GOING with this?
But I do know she has a new book of essays coming out in October, and I’ll buy it, because I still want to hear what she has to say, and I still want to see where she’s going.
Say we’re all friends. Take some Thursday night after work, at some comfortable, low-key bar where you can hear the conversation. Take any third or half of any chapter in this book, and, as we’re all shooting the shit and telling stories and laughing, have her tell us that third or half of a chapter. Her stories would own the night, and we’d all leave thinking Wow, what an awesome evening.
Reading it all, though, I got antsy and a little bored. I kept wondering: What is the POINT? Where is she GOING with this?
But I do know she has a new book of essays coming out in October, and I’ll buy it, because I still want to hear what she has to say, and I still want to see where she’s going.
March 20, 2022
Heather Havilesky has a great deal of stories to tell about her childhood and early adult life, and I was here for it. She wrote just enough to be able to envision things, but not so much that she hammered a dead horse. Many of the stories in her memoir are both funny and sad, or made me both melancholy and angry for her. And I was almost always shocked by the weirdness (ineptitude) of adults when they are around kids. In this way, this book reminds me of other books I've read like this: Educated by Tara Westover, Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, and even the fictional Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson.
April 15, 2022
Great read! I wasn't familiar with Heather Havrilesky before reading "Disaster Preparedness", but you grow to love her through the stories she shares from her life. This is a great book for right now. I think the ending message just reminds you that it's okay to be you, flaws and all. We're all going to face things in life, sometimes alone, sometimes together. We'll get through though and it helps to find a little humor along the way.
May 6, 2019
Were you a child of the 70's? An awkward middle schooler-high schooler in the 80's? A child of divorce parents and at times divorced of reality? Then this is the book for you. Very funny. Very keen on the times and generally what any child would like to find in diary format as to why their mother is the way she is.
May 20, 2019
I remember reading this book because I thought it was a manual on how to survive on anything -- boy was I wrong. Although it was far from what I thought it was going to be, the memoir was, without doubt, something I found very interesting to read. It was very intimate and gave a lot of details about her love life... but, I can't say I'll be reading it again.
July 1, 2022
It’s true… as a child/young person, we really don’t understand so much of what happens in the world around us as we lack the experience and context. Looking back over growing up in the 70s/80s, this offers a humorous, although at times rather bittersweet, review of those early life disasters that prepare one for those later life disasters. All in all, well met.
September 7, 2022
I can’t help but love Heather Havrilesky! She’s David Sedaris, but in reverse: emotional with a funny edge, vs funny with an emotional edge. (Are they friends, or is it just the theme of childhood in 1970’s Raleigh/Durham that makes me think they should be?)
Anyway. Heather Havrilesky makes me smile and this book is no exception.
Anyway. Heather Havrilesky makes me smile and this book is no exception.
October 26, 2018
Memoir of a middle class white woman that nothing happened to
Navel gazing at its finest with some vague references to difficult things but very little emotional depth despite tossing around Ram Dass, Alan Watts, and Eckhart Tolle.
Navel gazing at its finest with some vague references to difficult things but very little emotional depth despite tossing around Ram Dass, Alan Watts, and Eckhart Tolle.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 132 reviews